The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-12-14
CHICAGO AND THE REPUBLICAN,

PARTY.
At the mention of Chicago as the place
where the Republican party Will meet in
June next, to name candidates for Presi-
dent and Vice-President, what a train Of
sad memories must be suggested to Repub-
licans who were old enough to be active
participants in political affairs in 1880.
General Grant, the great captain credited
with saving the Union, was a candidate
for the nomination for President. He had
been eight years President. He had Just
returned from foreign lands, from
his voyage around the world. He had
been ieted and toasted by Kings and EN-
perors, Lords and Ladies, the poud and the
powerful, Ovation followed ovation in
rapid succession. Cannon had doomed
and flags bad been unfurled in his honor,
and brass bands had played ''See, the Con.
quering Hero Comes" Come he had. He
was again on his native heath, and can
didate again for the highest Office in the
gift of his countIymen. In that august
moment Blaine struck him down. How?
By asserting that U. s. Grant had turned
traitor to his country, and If again made
President, he would destroy the Republic
and upon its ruins erect an empire and
establish Grant dynasty.
Poor General Grant. He had abandoned
the Democratic party when his cup of
fame was full. Debauched by the corrupt
Republican leaders, who wanted to use
his Ienown-they turned him from what
Ben. Harrison would call ''sunlit hills OF
duty" to kill him in Chicago-the slaugh-
ter-pen of the world. Grants fame culmi-
mated at AppOmsttox-after that there was
nothing for Grant. at Chicago he met
prutus in Blaine, and died of his wounds
on Mt. McGregor. No man who reveres
the memory of Grant can vote for Blaine
without confessing himself a Patron, nor
for any man who stood with Blaine on the
occasion when Blaine and his conspirators
stabbed Grant to death.
At Chicago Blaine and Sherman and
Garfield murdered Grant, politically ,.and
the wounds they inflicted hurried him to
his grave-and they accomplished their
work by attacking Grants patriotism and
by intimations that he was really for
treason, so black, that IN comparison Ar
nold's is white as an angels robs-and
that is what Grant received as a reward
for his abandonment of the Democratic
party.
But it must be remembered, and it will
be remembered, that James &. Garfield be-
came the beneficiary of Grants political
assassination at Chicago-and that with
bis nomination began a Republican
factional fight unparalleled for its
murderous ferceness. In the cam
paign of 1880 the Republican party sunk
to the lowest depths of corruption and de-
pravity. 1t triumphed, but its success was
the death of Garfield. Poor Garfield, the
beneficiary OF Grants political death, and
the beneficiary of the crimes of Dorsey,
was seated in the Presidential chair to be
murdered by a Republican crank who had
been warmed into life in the fires of Re-
publican factional hate-and as he fired
the fatal shot, exclaimed: Arthur is
| PRESIDENT" And Arthur became at last
the beneficiary of the Chicago fight.
Grant, Garfield, Arthur and Guitea are all
dead. In 1884 Blaine was nominated at
Chicago. 1t is needless to say that his as
sassination OF Grant contributed to his de-
feat. Republicans remembered his inn
| placable hostility to Grant at Chicago in
1880. Brilliant, but corrupt and depraved,
thousands of honest Republicans would
not vote for him, nor Will they vote for
any man who encompassed the downfall
of Grant at Chicago by charging him with
treason 10 the Republic. The selection OF
Chicago by the. Republican bosses as the
place to hold the nominating convention
of the Republican party is an omen Of
disaster to the party-an instance in which
coming events cast their shadows before. :